Climate Change and Environmental Security
Course code
RIR7030.YK
old course code
RIR7030
Course title in Estonian
Kliimamuutused ja keskkonnajulgeolek
Course title in English
Climate Change and Environmental Security
ECTS credits
5.0
Assessment form
Examination
lecturer of 2023/2024 Spring semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The course aims to establish the climate crisis as a multifaceted societal problem with a potentially disastrous impact on humankind but also opens up the search for new and more effective pathways to combat it.
Brief description of the course
The effects of the changing climate are visible to most in droughts, sea level rise, and wildfires, but also biodiversity loss, pollution, and pandemics. However, it also sits at the heart of many societal challenges, such as migration, food availability, changing values and the needed transitions to
new forms of economy, transport, energy and quite simply living. The effects of the changing climate, though of planetary nature, have the biggest impact on humans and the societies they have built. We should therefore center on the notion that the planet will very likely survive
these changes but will humankind? This suggests further that the climate emergency is deeply embedded in our political, societal and economic systems and is much more than a niche concern of a few but the most pressing issue humankind has to deal with – now and in the future. This crisis transcends local, regional and global contexts and its crisis characteristics,
which require immanent political actions, are slowly understood. Moreover, it is well-established that the impact of the Climate Crisis is unevenly distributed based on geography but also along the lines of race, class, and gender. All of this points to the inextricable link of the Climate Crisis and
colonialism’s legacies which have created this world. This also opens up questions about justice in the current climate adaptation and mitigation
strategies and points to the need to engage more seriously with this notion.
Most of the political and academic approaches fail to engage with the issue in a substantive and critical manner and might even be responsible
for the worsening of the problem. It has, therefore, become apparent that we need a new knowledge catalogue to address it.
new forms of economy, transport, energy and quite simply living. The effects of the changing climate, though of planetary nature, have the biggest impact on humans and the societies they have built. We should therefore center on the notion that the planet will very likely survive
these changes but will humankind? This suggests further that the climate emergency is deeply embedded in our political, societal and economic systems and is much more than a niche concern of a few but the most pressing issue humankind has to deal with – now and in the future. This crisis transcends local, regional and global contexts and its crisis characteristics,
which require immanent political actions, are slowly understood. Moreover, it is well-established that the impact of the Climate Crisis is unevenly distributed based on geography but also along the lines of race, class, and gender. All of this points to the inextricable link of the Climate Crisis and
colonialism’s legacies which have created this world. This also opens up questions about justice in the current climate adaptation and mitigation
strategies and points to the need to engage more seriously with this notion.
Most of the political and academic approaches fail to engage with the issue in a substantive and critical manner and might even be responsible
for the worsening of the problem. It has, therefore, become apparent that we need a new knowledge catalogue to address it.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
The students will understand that the Climate Crisis is not nature’s problem but is primarily a problem of the world’s societies and needs to be understood and approached as such.
The students will understand the manifold security threats for humans and non-humans emanating from the rapidly changing climate and that these need political responses.
The students will explore how global climate change emerges from and reinforces historic unequal power telations created and upheld by colonial regimes.
The student will explore alternative approaches to the governance (adaptation and mitigation) of the climate crisis, also in the form of indigenous knowledge tradition.
The students will scrutinize IR approaches in their ability to engage with the climate crisis.
The students will understand that the Climate Crisis is not nature’s problem but is primarily a problem of the world’s societies and needs to be understood and approached as such.
The students will understand the manifold security threats for humans and non-humans emanating from the rapidly changing climate and that these need political responses.
The students will explore how global climate change emerges from and reinforces historic unequal power telations created and upheld by colonial regimes.
The student will explore alternative approaches to the governance (adaptation and mitigation) of the climate crisis, also in the form of indigenous knowledge tradition.
The students will scrutinize IR approaches in their ability to engage with the climate crisis.
Teacher
Määramata
Study programmes containing that course